Holding The Line Guide Service

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Month: January 2016

This morning I fished with a real nice bunch of folks from all over Texas. The trip organizer was Marshall Smith from University Park near Southern Methodist University, near Dallas. Randy and Carly Lockhart hailed from Aledo, west of Ft. Worth, and Guillaume Smith drove up from Austin. Their family owns a cabin near Temple Lake Park on Belton Lake, so they were able to overnight locally and avoid an early morning drive from a distance to make our 7:15 start time.

As has been the case for the past 4 trips now on Stillhouse, some nice largemouth have shown up on our catch while targeting white bass.

This shot was taken before 8:15am — and we didn’t leave the courtesy dock until 7:25. The early morning breeze and helpful gull action put us right on the fish this morning.

Closely observing bird activity helped us uncover this icing on the cake beginning around 10:15am!!. The action lasted about 50 minutes.

The weather was balmy this morning for late January, and the wind blew the entire trip which helped us out tremendously. Many anglers don’t like the wind because it makes boat control and line control more challenging, but, blowing wind turns fish on without a doubt.

We spent our first 25 minutes on the water looking for fish with sonar in the absence of bird activity, but, by the time the sun cleared the horizon by a few minutes, the trusty ringbill gulls were patrolling right along with us, and they found what they were after, thus helping us find what we were after.

These gulls typically look for large threadfin shad, gizzard shad, and (especially on Stillhouse) sunfish that are killed or stunned by marauding schools of white bass on the prowl. When white bass get aggressive they’ll strike whatever moves, including, on occasion, things too big for them to swallow. As these would-be snacks float to the surface, gulls dive down to dine and, in so doing, reveal the location of the fish that did the damage.

The gull action lasted right at an hour, and the action under them was slow but consistent, giving up a total of 18 fish in our first hour with lines in the water. I told Marshall I was going to keep moving until we found fish, versus sitting in one spot and hoping fish would come to us. It was then that he supportively declared, “Hope is not a strategy!”.

Our next stop came off the side of a deep hump near the old Lampasas River channel in about 42 feet of water. These fish presented on sonar as a very tightly schooled mass. No sooner did our slabs reach bottom then we started hooking and landing fish non-stop for another hour, taking our tally up into the 70’s. Eventually, the school lost interest and the bite died down right at 10am.

Our final stop of the morning also came in 42 feet of water and over top of a large school of fish which we found by observing diving terns feeding on small threadfin shad forced to the surface by the white bass beneath them. This action came as the winds reached their highest velocity of the morning — about 15mph. This was really easy fishing for very aggressive fish. Instead of jigging as was required the rest of the morning, we simply dropped our lures to the bottom and lifted them high up off bottom and through the heavily schooled fish we saw on sonar.

The fishing died hard right around 11:05a, as the terns very abruptly went to rest on the water’s surface and the sonar screen went white indicating no targets between the surface and the bottom.

When all was said and done, we’d boated 126 fish including 121 white bass and 5 largemouth. Big fish honors went to Carly with a chunky largemouth that pulled the Boga Grip down to the 5.00 pound mark.

This morning I fished with Jeff Wynn and his father, John Wynn. Jeff is a firefighter on Fort Hood, and John retired from law enforcement and now serves as a municipal court bailiff. The two have birthdays on either side of this date they chose for the trip, although I do believe any excuse would have passed in order to allow for a day on the water.

Most winter trips targeting deep white bass result in at least a few largemouth and drum caught, as well. Here, John shows the largest of the two largemouth we took this morning.

John and Jeff show a sampling of the 96 fish we caught this morning in deep, cool water, including multiple white bass exceeding 14″.

We saw a mild, dry cold front move through mid-day yesterday, so I was concerned about our weather this morning. Bright, cold, and windless conditions can be quite tough, however, the forecast indicated we were to have 10 to 11 mile-per-hour winds this morning. Fortunately, those winds did develop about 45 minutes after sunrise, and the fish responded accordingly. After downrigging during the windless 45 minutes following sunrise and catching nothing, we moved as the wind began to blow and spotted gull activity spurred on by the feeding fish beneath them. From roughly 8 AM to 10:45 AM we enjoyed nonstop action on deep, heavily congregated white bass, with an occasional largemouth bass and freshwater drum mixed in.

We caught fish on three distinct areas this morning. The first area was the shallowest at about 34 feet, the second area we fished was the deepest at 43 feet, and we wrapped up at a third productive area in 39 feet.

The quality of the white bass we caught today was exceptional. Only two of the 96 fish we caught today were below the 10 inch limit, and most were right at 13 to 13.5 inches.

Our go to lure today was the three-quarter ounce white Redneck Fish’n’ Jigs Model 180 in the three-quarter ounce size, equipped with both a trouble hook and a Gamakatsu G–Stinger hook.

Neither John nor Jeff fish very often, perhaps 2 to 3 times per year. They really did not know what to expect, and like many people, thought that cold weather and cold water translated into slow fishing. They quickly realized that is not the case. Jeff commented, “Man, we would have been happy just catching 15 fish or so.” I am glad we were able to exceed his expectations.

The current five day forecast calls for unseasonably warm weather, which should result in a net warming of the surface temperature which this morning stood at 53.1 Fahrenheit.

If you’ve got cabin fever and want to get out and see how winter time fishing with sonar and jigging spoons is done, this is an excellent time to get on the water and learn. Give me a call anytime.

This Monday morning, January 25th, the kids of the Killeen Independent School District had the day off as their teachers did some learning of their own on a professional development day. This freed up the schedule for the Garcia family of Killeen to come aboard for the 2016 season’s first SKIFF (Soldiers’ Kids Involved in Fishing Fun) trip.

Accompanied by their mom, Amanda, were 14-year-old Isaiah, 8-year-old Aubrey, and 6-year-old Sophia.

The children’s father, U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Garcia, is currently in Egypt where he provides veterinary services to the military. The SKIFF program provides trips free-of-charge to children of the Ft. Hood community who are separated from their parents due to military duty, be it due to something as lengthy as a deployment, or something shorter, such as a temporary duty (TDY) assignment or attendance at a military school.

The weather was very mild for this time of year — 58F before sunrise — and it warmed up even more once the sun rose and the clouds cleared.

A mild cold front was due into the area later in the day, so, we were fortunate to have SW winds in advance of the front and the wind shift to the north that would accompany that front. The more strongly the wind blew this morning, the better the fishing got.

We found fish as shallow as 25 feet, and as deep as 37 feet, and we found fish both relating to bottom (which were settled in and feeding) and suspended (which were migrating slowly uplake in advance of the spawn. Accordingly, we alternated between jigging with slabs and downrigging to access fish in both locations.

Our first hour on the water was pretty quiet, the second hour spotty, the third hours saw building action, and the first 45 minutes of our final hour on the water brought the strongest bite of all.

By trip’s end the kids had landed a grand total of 49 fish, including 48 white bass and a single largemouth bass.

The stateside Garcia’s are hopeful their dad will return by spring break, but are cautious about getting their hopes up too soon.

A huge “thank you” to the Austin Fly Fishers and all the individuals and organizations who have given time, funds, and encouragement since May of 2009 to perpetuate the SKIFF program.

Sorry for the gap in fishing reports since the Thursday after Christmas. After Rebecca and I headed to New Hampshire on 01 Jan. and returned on 06 Jan., I had much church work backlogged that needed attention, and could not take out clients until my new Yamaha 4-stroke outboard had gone through the break-in period. We are in the clear now…

Ricardo plucked this large, aging male largemouth out of 36 feet of water from amongst a school of white bass.

Rick and Ricardo each picked up several white bass stretching beyond the 14″ mark on this morning’s trip.

We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. This year it was later — with water surface temperatures right at 60 degrees beyond Christmas, more seasonal weather then set in, dropping the surface temperatures steadily. We are now dealing with what is considered cold water for Texas. I measured 51-53 degrees this week on Stillhouse, and with the cold front that blew in around noon on Thursday, those temperatures will go even lower.

Anglers simply must remember that fish are cold-blooded, so their metabolism rises and falls with water temperature. Our Texas lakes are filled with warm-water species of fish which tend to get more sluggish, and which move less and feed less during the cold water period. This by no means creates a situation where fish are impossible to catch. Rather, anglers must adjust locations and tactics to be successful until lengthening days and warming trends start driving water temperatures back up again, typically in early March.

On Thursday, I fished with Belton anglers Rick Powell and Ricardo Cisneros on Stillhouse in search of white bass. Stillhouse is in great shape right now with clear, green water which stands right at the full-pool mark of 622 feet above sea level.

We had planned to meet at 7:15 a.m, but at 7:10 I received a text letting me know they were running late. My reply read, “OK, but don’t stop for coffee.” The three hours following sunrise tend to offer the best fishing of the day during the winter season. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main reason is that mornings tend to offer more bird activity. When light levels allow gulls and terns to be able to see well enough, they begin to patrol by air, looking for baitfish driven to the surface by gamefish. Looking for such activity can help avoid having to meticulously comb over acres of water with sonar in a much slower approach to fish-finding.

We were on our way by 7:25 a.m., and, just like clockwork, birds began to work over patches of water where I’d observed them working during my scouting trips late in the previous week and again on Monday. I slowly idled over the area these birds seemed interested in so as to verify the presence of gamefish with sonar.

During our first hour on the water, the conditions were near-calm with just a light southwest ripple on the water, but having studied the forecast, we knew more ideal, breezier conditions were ahead. The bite was a bit tentative during this period of calm winds. We caught fish both on jigging spoons (also known as slabs), and we caught fish on bladebaits worked horizontally.

Around 8:50 a.m. we spotted another concentration of bird activity about a mile away and headed over to investigate. Just as we arrived, the winds shifted from southwest to westerly and increased in velocity from near-calm to 10-12 mph. The fish responded positively and immediately. We sat in one area about 27 feet deep and caught 45 fish, including white bass, largemouth bass and a freshwater drum, in about as many minutes.

Once the bite at this area tapered off, we moved on to what would be our final stop of the morning. As often happens as the morning progresses and the skies brighten, the shallower groups of fish stop feeding as deeper groups of fish begin feeding. By starting shallow and ending deep, anglers can stay on fish for the full 3- to 4-hour window during winter mornings.

Once again, birds led the way to these fish which were holding on and just off the bottom in 36 feet of water. We used slow, intentional vertical jigging tactics with all-white ¾-ounce slabs equipped with stinger hooks to boat another 50-plus fish at this area in about 70 minutes.

By 10:45, the wind had continued to shift to the NNW, and the velocity was approaching 20 mph. As the gray clouds on the leading edge of the front gave way to clear skies behind it, the fishing began to drop off sharply.

Powell and Cisneros finished the day with 115 fish, including a number of white bass that stretched beyond the 14-inch mark, as well as several largemouth bass and a single gaspergou.

To recap, for winter success, keep an eye on the weather forecast for days with southerly winds or a wind shift in advance of a cold front, go early, observe for bird action, verify the presence of fish with sonar and then fish slowly and vertically for the fish you locate.